HE Jose Manuel Barroso, as the 11th President of the European Commission, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 on behalf of the European Union which was awarded the prize "for its contribution to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe for over six decades".

After graduating in law from the University of Lisbon, Mr. Barroso moved to Geneva where he completed a Diploma in European Studies at the European University Institute, University of Geneva, and a Master's degree in Political Science from the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Geneva, earning honors in both. He embarked on an academic career, working successively as a teaching assistant at the Law Faculty of the University of Lisbon, in the Department of Political Science, University of Geneva, and as a visiting professor at the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.). In 1995 he became Head of the International Relations Department of Lusíada University, Lisbon. In 1979 he was one of the founders of AUROP, the Portuguese University Association for European Studies, and he later became the first editor of the Revista de Ciência Política.

In 1980 Mr. Barroso joined the Social Democratic Party (PSD). He was first elected to the Portuguese parliament in 1985 and was re-elected six times thereafter. In 1999 he was elected President of the PSD and re-elected three times. During the same period he served as Vice President of the European People's Party. As State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation he played a key role as mediator of the peace accords for Angola in Bicesse (Estoril, Portugal) in 1991, and as Minister for Foreign Affairs he launched the talks with the Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, under the auspices of the Secretary General of the United Nations, that ultimately led to the independence of East Timor. Under his leadership the PSD won the general election in 2002, and he was appointed Prime Minister of Portugal in April of that year. He remained in office until July 2004 when he was nominated by the European Council and elected by the European Parliament to the post of President of the European Commission. In June 2009 the European Council unanimously nominated him for a second term as President of the European Commission, and he was re-elected by an absolute majority in the European Parliament in September 2009, and since he completed his 2nd term in 2014, he became only the 2nd Commission President to serve two terms. During his decade as President of the European Commission Mr. Barroso oversaw the fight against Ebola, the political handling on climate change issues, the crises in the Ukraine and with the Eurozone as well as the EU's 2012 award of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr. Barroso has participated in several international missions including, among others, head of the IDEA delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina (1996) and advisor to the United Nations in projects for Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was named Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in 1993 and declared "European of the Year 2006" by the newspaper European Voice.

Mr. Barroso has been awarded more than thirty honorary doctorate degrees from various universities in Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. He is the author of numerous publications on political science, international relations and European studies including, Le système politique portugais face à l'intégration européenne (Lisbon and Lausanne, 1983), Uma Certa Ideia de Europa (1999), Mudar de Modelo (2002) and Reformar: Dois Anos de Governo (2004).

Mr. Barroso is now a policy fellow of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) at Princeton University and the Frederick H. Schultz Class of 1951 Visiting Professor of International Economic Policy at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He also teaches at the Graduate Institute of International Studies and at the University of Geneva.

SCHEDULE

Monday, January 23, 2017:

10:00 Dialogue with high school students at Stamford American International School in Singapore (not a public event)

14:00 Master class at Stamford American International School in Singapore (not a public event)